Blackstone goes green

With surging energy prices, investors have been pouring huge sums into alternative energy and cleantech deals. For example, according to a recent survey from Ernst & Young/Dow Jones VentureSource, venture capital investments in the category have surged 83% to $961.7 million in Q2.

Well, private equity shops also want some of the action (especially since buyouts continue to remain fairly dormant). That is, the Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) has established its Cleantech Energy Group.

The chief of this division will be James D. Kiggen, who certainly brings some nice credentials. He was the senior vice president at AllianceBernstein L.P, where he analyzed emerging technologies. He also structured investments in a variety of cleantech companies, like A123Systems and Powerspan.

It looks like Kiggen will have a wide mandate. Some of the investment themes include wind power, solar, ethanol, renewables and so on.

In fact, Blackstone has already made some cleantech investments. One example is an investment with Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH to complete Meerwind, a massive wind farm project in the North Sea. There was also an $870 million deal for a Bujagali hydroelectric power station (late last year).

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.